ELA (Reading) Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Subject:​ ELA - Reading Literature Central Focus: ​Historical Fiction

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2: Determine a theme
Date taught: ​2/26/2018
of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text;
summarize the text.
Daily Lesson Objective: ​Students will independently summarize a historical fiction passage, explicitly
identifying what made it “historical”, what made it “fictional”, and the main idea of the story. Students will also
be able to define “historical fiction”. Students will be expected to earn 7/10 points; up to two points will be
awarded for each response on a 5 question exit ticket.
21​st​ Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand:
● Language Function: summarize, identify
1. Critical Thinking
● Vocabulary: historical fiction, historical, fictional
2. Initiative and Self - Direction
● Syntax: Guided Worksheet, Exit Ticket

● Discourse: Turn and Talk, Think-Pair-Share

Prior Knowledge: ​students are familiar with procedures (turn and talk, interactive notebook, read aloud,
technology); genres of literature; identifying main idea of a passage; responding in complete sentences

Activity Description

Turn and Talk:​ what is Historical Fiction?

Share: ​allow students to share what they and their partners discussed.
1. Focus and Review Record thoughts on board.

Connections:​ “I Survived…” books by Lauren Tarshis, “Magic Tree

House” books by Mary Pope Osborne

2. Statement of Objective Today, we are going to learn about historical fiction and what makes a
for Student story historical fiction.

Define historical fiction: ​two words - “historical” and “fiction”; using

thoughts shared by students during Focus and Review, generate a
familiar definition of Historical Fiction and record it on top of INB page.

INB:​ Historical Fiction - “house sheet” provided by Ms. Hanson

3. Teacher Input
Read Aloud:​ ​“The First Flag”​, by Barbara Radner

Think Aloud: ​Ask yourself and answer the following questions to model
how students will be asked to summarize the other passages: what in
this story was historical? What was fictional? What was the main idea?

Kellyn McNamara - 2018

 Passage: ​The teacher reads aloud ​“The Sign”​ by Laura Wrang.

Think - Pair - Share: ​The students think about what made the story
historical, what made it fictional, and what the main idea of the story
4. Guided Practice
was, by jotting down their thoughts on a provided worksheet. Then the
students pair to share their thoughts. Finally, the students share their
thoughts with the class. The teacher should record student responses
on a teacher’s copy of the worksheet projected on the board.

Exit Ticket: ​Students independently read passage (​“A Simple Gift”​ by

5. Independent Practice Sandra Havriluk) and respond to digital exit ticket.
https://goo.gl/forms/EXZNvyAzwqAdmvMR2
Formative - Exit Ticket: ​After independently reading “​ A Simple Gift”​ by
Sandra Havriluk, students will respond to the exit ticket, which is
comprised of the following questions, using complete sentences:

1. What features of the story were historical?

2. What features of the story were fictional?
3. What was the main idea of the story?
4. What is historical fiction?
5. Why is historical fiction important?

6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills: Quality Points

Student thoughtfully responded to question using complete 2

sentences when prompted.

Student responded to question, but failed to use complete 1

sentences when prompted or think critically.

Student failed to use both complete sentences when 0

prompted and critical thinking.

Allow students to discuss last question of exit ticket - “Why is historical

7. Closure
fiction important?”

% of students demonstrating mastery (7/10 points or higher): ​79%

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills: Strengths: ​On average, students scored the most points for generating
a definition for “historical fiction” (1.827/2 points). A majority of them
demonstrated the ability to identify the main idea of the story (1.758/2
points), and a majority of them seemed comfortable identifying fictional
features of the story (1.724/2 points).

Weaknesses: ​On average, students scored the least points or

identifying historical features of a historical fiction text (1.586/2 points).
Most students made the mistake of identifying things that might be

Kellyn McNamara - 2018

 realistic as potentially historical. 2/29 students had points deducted for
failing to provide their responses as complete answers.

Small Group Modifications: ​5 students will be pulled for guided reading group during independent practice

Text Selection “A Simple Gift”, by Sandra Havriluk

https://www.commonlit.org/texts/a-simple-gift

Introduction to Text Discussion - who was Abraham Lincoln?

● 17th President of the United States
● Civil war; slavery
● Honest Abe
● Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

Reading Teacher and students take turns interacting with the text

As students discuss the following, they respond on the Google Forms Exit Ticket.
https://goo.gl/forms/EXZNvyAzwqAdmvMR2

Discussion What was the main idea of the story?

Teaching Points ● What were the historical features of the story?

● What were the fictional features of the story?

Word Work What is ​historical fiction​?

Extending Understanding Why is historical fiction important?

Materials/Technology: ​whiteboard/SmartBoard, I Survived... book/poster, INB sheet (Hanson), students
INBs, glue stick for each student, pencil for each student, pen for Ms Mc, TPS worksheet for each student,
paper copy of passage for TP, paper copy of passage for GP, paper copies of passage for IP, link to passage
for IP, computer for each student to complete exit ticket

Kellyn McNamara - 2018

Kellyn McNamara - 2018